


dancing all night

by prosodiical



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 01:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3190112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosodiical/pseuds/prosodiical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the Winter Palace, Cole solicits the Inquisitor for a dance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dancing all night

As she leant on the balcony, looking down at the perfectly manicured gardens below, all Ellana wanted to do was go back to her room in Skyhold, to scrub off the paint on her face and tear off the restrictive clothing, to be back feeling a bit like herself once more. It was better thinking of that than the choice she (hadn't been decisive enough) to make in time, to save Empress Celene before she was killed. But she had heard what had been done to the Alienage in Halamshiral, and she wasn't sure her belated decision had been the wrong one.

"Hello."

" _Anath ara_ ," she said, the words almost automatic before she corrected it to, "hello." It was Cole standing there, somehow snuck through the ballroom like a ghost, and there was a tightness to his face that made her regret bringing him. Stuffed into Inquisition regalia and minus his ever-present hat, he looked more like a shem than he usually did, and all the worse for it.

" _Ma tel'abelas_ ," he replied, his accent strange and soft around the consonants, and she remembered then that words were simply words to a being such as him. "You did a good thing here."

Ellana laughed, her voice tight when she said, "But did I? Empress Celene died because I wasn't fast enough."

"That wasn't good," Cole said, slow and quiet, as though he were deliberating over each word, "but Briala will be a good leader. You chose her because she'll help them," and he looked at her from under his mop of hair, expression intent. "You faltered because Celene wasn't helping them, the elves, your people."

Releasing a sigh, Ellana turned back to the balcony, to the few stars visible above the bright ballroom lights. " _Ma serannas_ ," she said to the night, and as Cole joined her there she felt it pouring out of her in a rush: "We call them flat-ears, did you know? Like somehow we're better than them, as though they deserve our derision as well as all they get from the shems - when their lives are struggles enough already. My keeper never stood for it, but the other clans..."

"This will help them," he said, his tone earnest. "I tried, but there are too many even here. _Don't let him notice me_ ," he said, shifting into that faraway sing-song, " _not like he did her who drowned at the bottom of the lake_ , _please don't let them find anything wrong, they'll sell me to slavers or worse_ ," and his voice drifted off as he stared into space. "I can help those few people," he said, after a long moment, "but you helped them all."

"Well, when you put it like that," Ellana said, trying for humour and failing somewhat as she tried not to think of the consequences she had wrought. _Hellathin_ or no, at least she was helping her kinsmen, who would be better treated under Briala's effective rule; anything else, she knew, would come in time.

She looked up in time to catch the small smile on his face, and felt her own mouth lift as his head tilted like a curious bird's. "They're dancing," he said, quiet, and she looked back inside past the glass windows, at the bright gowns and suits swirling into blurs of colour, with the soft refrain of music seeping through. 

"Their empress was just assassinated, and they're dancing," she murmured, her breath catching on an ironic laugh, and Cole said, his voice unusually hesitant,

"Would you like to dance?"

Surprised, she looked up and searched his face, not sure what she was looking for but feeling reassured at his earnest, hopeful expression. "Oh," she said, with a touch of a smile, "I suppose I could." She slid her hand into his as they stepped away from the balcony, and he settled his hand on her waist before stopping abruptly.

"I," he said, and there was red creeping along his cheeks. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to."

Her smile was unbidden and she couldn't stop her laugh, the weight in her chest lightening as she stepped closer, setting her other hand on his shoulder. "Well, come on. I'll teach you."

**Author's Note:**

> I've fallen so much in love with this pairing, it's crazy. Let me know what you think!


End file.
